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Mach 3 missile advances By Graham Warwick in Washington DC Lockheed Martin is nearing the crit­ical design review on a technology demonstrator for a Mach 3-plus cruise missile that could be air, ship and submarine-launched. The missile would be accelerated from subsonic launch to supersonic cruise by a turbine engine, and could fly 920km (500nm) or more in 15min to attack time-critical targets. The demonstrator is being de­signed for the US Office of Naval Research (ONR) under the Revolutionary Approach to Time-critical Long-Range Strike (RATTLRS) project. Lockheed’s Skunk Works is prime contractor. Rolls-Royce’s Liberty Works is building the YJ102R high-Mach...

ORLANDO, Fla., Aug. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT - News) demonstrated a key technology milestone for the integration of a boosted penetrator warhead with a long-range cruise missile that can be used against hard and deeply buried targets. ADVERTISEMENT In the test, held at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, in Socorro, NM, the penetrator was expelled from a missile body using a small discharge pressurization device. "This is a unique method of attacking hard and deeply buried targets," said Jim Pappafotis, director of Advanced Programs at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "We made a...